Yeah I have never head Edwards say that... I have heard Edward's SUPPORTERS on MYDD say that, but not the canidate.

Apparently you and I are both wrong... Edwards is out there saying that... VWCAT is correct...  I'd see his statements are a lot worse than being called cute, but that is just my opinion.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/ politics/la-na-edwards18mar18,1,6223973. story?coll=la-news-politics-national& ;track=crosspromo

Except this really isn't a big deal and Curt was WAY to paranoid in it...

I think Obama did not mean this maliciously. My hunch is that it was a rookie mistake. Obama is not used to every word out of his mouth being potential news.

I get more angry about remarks in Obama's prepared speeches that posit a false equivalency between Republicans and Democrats in terms of nasty partisanship, or that promote false stereotypes about Democrats being hostile to religion. I want Obama to stop promoting himself by putting down the Democratic brand.

Umm...is it a GOP attack when Edwards himself says it?

From the Advocate:

"I'm the cutest candidate, so I've got the gays, but tell Bruce Weber I'm not posing shirtless by a lake."  - John Edwards

Listen, it's not a big deal, the guy is good looking.  Relax.

Republicans have a long history of attacking Edwards along those lines.  Around about 2003 or early 2004, Robert Novak repeatedly called Edwards "the Breck Girl."  So, yes, the "pretty boy" put down has some history to it.

What do you have to say about Rudy and Mitt?  I really do want to hear partisan zingers but I want them directed at Republicans, particularly the front runners for 2008.  WE need to be the ones who establish public perception of these people first.  So often, it has been Democrats who start in a (mud) hole due to a year or two of constant slander.

It seemed innocent enough to me.  Besides, did you see John's response?  Along the lines of "Barack's kinda good-lookin, too."

The worst that this was, was a little dig at Edwards.  It would be odd to say it that way, though, because anything you could subtly mean by saying it could also be applied to Barack himself.  And, so far as I can figure, it seems to have nothing to do with the Coulter/gay stuff.  Why would it?  No, thats just silly.  

but whatever you say. If you're going to try and make THIS issue I'm pretty sure you're going to have trouble getting any traction.

The irony is that you could learn something from Obama. Even when someone really does personally attack him, rather than when the fringes perceive it, he doesn't make a big to-do about it, since there are far more important things to talk about. If you're going to react this way every time a Democrat says that Edwards is a good-looking guy, its going to be a rough campaign for you.

Personally, I think you're trying to make a connection which is flaccid at best, in a meek attempt to help your 3rd-place candidate gain traction. And as always, its not going to work because this community is generally too smart for that.

Mark me down for disagreeing if you wish. I think what I've said is no worse than the somewhat libelous claims that you've made in your diary.

Curt, you clearly have no idea who Ann Coulter is or what she does.

Obama didn't advocate truck-bombing Edwards' HQ, did he?  Coulter supports political truck bombings.

Obama discussed Edwards superficially?  Coulter attacked his sexuality.

Did Obama attack all trial lawyers because he's running against one of them?  Of course not.  did Coulter malign every Vietnam veteran because one of them had the audacity to disagree with her on national TV?  Of course she did.

This isn't Coulteresque.  He didn't even imply that Elizabeth Edwards is a closet lesbian.  Trying to link calling John Edwards "cute" (and he is, isn't he?  Boyishly charming, at least?) with calling for the assassination of a Supreme Court justice is insane.

And, lest we forget, it's not like Edwards has to deal with magazines publishing photos of him in his bathing suit.  Hell, "Will & Grace" used to make jokes about Obama's looks.  If anything, he's better able to empathize with Edwards on that front than anyone else.

You're trying to make a hate-filled mountain out of a humor-stuffed molehill.

how is it an attack?  Edwards has been referred to as good looking since 2004.  Obama is also consistently referred to as cute or good looking or whatever.  

Seriously, Obama's the guy who had a photo of him without his shirt on plastered all over every paper in the country.

You're really digging here.  Its pretty pathetic, really.

The attack used by Coulter was calling Edwards a faggot.

Is that what Obama did?

THEN IT'S NOT THE VERY SAME ATTACK, IS IT?

Maybe you should go after the feminists that SUPPORT Edwards who say he would be the first female President... after all if Obama's statements are an "attack" in your eyes, these Edward's supporters are feminizing him too.  

Because John's still leading in Iowa.

But he's not doing what you say he's doing. He's not doing anything close to what Coulter did. Not even in the same ball park.

I'm fairly agnostic about this race. I liked Richardson for a bit, then he fell back into the pack as I got more familiar with his economic views. I probably have a slight Obama lean, but Edwards appeals to me some days, too. Basically, either of those two guys would be fine with me.

But what I don't like is the tendency by supporters to equate anything mildly negative to the worst of what the right-wing does. I'm very confident Edwards can deal with being called "good-looking" ... being called a "faggot" however deserves a strong and powerful response. It's just a whole different sphere, and it mainstreams Coulter to try to equate the two.

If Obama called Edwards the Breck girl I would agree with you.  Instead, he made fun of the republican charge against BOTH edwards and obama that they're somehow lightweights b/c they're young and attractive.

Obama really isn't the enemy buddy and neither am I.  Take a look at some of my comments -- I've consistently defended Edwards against people attacking him because I like him and think he'd make a great POTUS.  I just think Obama would be a little bit better.  

Right, because comparing a candidate to a terrorist or saying that he was educated in a fundamentalist islamic school is the same as noting that someone is good looking.  Oh, and by the way, Obama has made fun of the exact same line being applied to him.  Did you notice the people magazine spread with him in a bathing suit?

You're equating this with those?  If you aren't joking, you're insane.  And if you are joking, you aren't funny.

"ain't the same ballpark, ain't the same league,  ain't even the same fuckin' sport." -Samuel L. Jackson

You know, Ailes' joke wasn't that bad.  Obama acknowledges his name is sometimes a hindrance in American politics, and the joke was about Bush being an idiot.

The Madrassa smear, though, was based on a lie.  Edwards is often considered to be cute--or 'boyishly handsome' if you prefer.

I never said that.  You are using a straw man argument. Obama did not call Edwards a faggot, as Coulter did.  Obama, intentoionally or unintentionally, used themes of feminizing Edwards, which is the Republican attempt at negative branding.  "Effeminate Edwards" is the theme, and its bullshit -- he played football in college and is plenty tough.  But rather than deal with the issue, you create a strawman to knock down and say, see, he did not call Edwards a faggot, so it's okay.

Is what Obama said really okay?  Maybe he should stop using these themes?  

You guys are developing a persecution complex that would make Kucinich supporters proud.

Our problem with people talking about Obama's school was that people lied about what the school was and what students were taught there in an attempt to use false information to attack Obama.

Edwards is boyishly handsome.  Stop treating that like a curse.  This was no more an attack than Edwards's swipe at Obama's campaign during his announcement speech in NOLA.

If you don't have the stomach for your boy being called "cute," you have no business in presidential politics--this wasn't a hit on Edwards.  This was barely even a poke.  And it certainly wasn't anywhere remotely close to what Coulter said.

It's not an attack if it's something he's said already.  See the quote from the Advocate upthread.

People say Obama is too wordy... THAT is more in line with the cute comment.  You guys have lost your freakin minds...   Seriously, would you guys be acting this way if Edwards was in the lead?  Or is it simply because he is in 3rd or 4th (if Gore is in the race)?  You have supporters of Edwards calling him the first woman president.  You have SUPPORTERS saying he is the best looking of the candidates, much the same way they did about JFK.  Even Edwards doesn't appear to be upset or offended or he would have said something... This isn't the same as calling him a gay slur.  This isn't the same as calling HRC a gay slur.  This isn't the same as calling Obama a terrorist.  It really is freaking scary that you don't see the difference here.